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Major League Baseball is expected to speak with the founder of defunct anti-aging clinic who is part of an ongoing investigation for allegedly supplying performance enhancing drugs to about 20 players, which could result in suspensions to superstars Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun, according to ESPN.

Tony Bosch, the founder of Biogenesis of America in Miami, Fla., has agreed to talk with MLB this Friday about its ongoing investigation and to supply information about the doping scandal, according to ESPN program "Outside the Lines," citing sources familiar with the situation.

Bosch is expected to say that he provided banned drugs to players and, in the case of Rodriguez, he injected the ailing New York Yankee slugger himself, ESPN reported.

looks like the suspensions are about happen after the Game that matters. Rumors are Afraud and Brawny are looking at 100 games based on not past conviction but for fibbing to teh Commish.

Updated Jul 10, 2013 1:22 AM ET

Almost exactly one month ago, ESPN reported that Major League Baseball would “seek” to suspend about 20 players in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal, including Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez.

These athletes flouted the rules. Who's in this hall of shame?

Tuesday evening, a new ESPN report said MLB “is expected to suspend Braun and Rodriguez [emphasis mine], along with as many as 20 players.” The timing of the discipline, according to the report, is “sometime after next week’s All-Star break.”

The more conclusive tone in Tuesday’s story was noteworthy. Apparently, MLB has made progress in the Biogenesis investigation with the cooperation of founder Anthony Bosch. And now executives, managers, players and fans across the majors must brace for the possibility of (a) bombshell suspensions, (b) lengthy appeals, or (c) some combination thereof.

Whatever the outcome, this could be one of the most awkward second halves in baseball history.

Our national pastime has remained remarkably resilient through this and other scandals over time. No matter how embarrassing the off-field news may be, our focus inevitably returns to what happens on warm nights at 7 p.m. Despite the ongoing steroid whodunit surrounding A-Rod and Braun, Dodgers rookie sensation Yasiel Puig has received more media coverage than either of them over the past month.

In general, legal- and PED-related stories have minimal impacts on what actually matters to fans — wins and losses. But the Biogenesis case is different. Here we have a quasi-legal proceeding, the details of which remain mysterious to many managers and players, potentially impacting key contributors on contending teams.

A piece of MLB commissioner Bud Selig’s legacy is at stake, to say nothing of the reputations of players linked to the probe in media reports. Four of them — Bartolo Colon, Jhonny Peralta, Nelson Cruz and Everth Cabrera — were just named to All-Star teams.

Maybe you want MLB to prosecute steroid cheats as if presiding over a zealous congressional inquiry. Maybe you don’t care. But I suspect you do have a rooting interest in whether your team makes the playoffs. And that’s where this gets complicated.

Take Peralta, for example. The Detroit Tigers don’t have a good internal candidate to replace him as the everyday shortstop. What if he’s suspended? Should he appeal right away? Or, depending on the duration, accept the punishment with the hope that he will be eligible once the postseason begins — even if it means being branded with the scarlet letters P-E-D for the remainder of his career?

Peralta is set to become a free agent after this season, which further muddles matters. Would it be too risky for him to appeal, knowing that — if he were to lose — the delayed punishment could carry into the 2014 season and affect his market value? Will the union insist behind the scenes that all players appeal or empower their members to make individual decisions? What would the Tigers think about that?

What would the Cleveland Indians, who trail them in the American League Central, think about that?

We don’t know the answers to those questions, because the sport hasn’t faced a set of circumstances quite like this before. Even the procedural protocols are different, because MLB would use documents and anecdotal evidence to issue suspensions rather than positive tests. (Players can be suspended without positive tests if Selig believes “just cause” exists.) First-time offenders could play while their appeals are ongoing, but their names would be announced publicly if they had been identified in previous media reports. Of course, that is the case for roughly 20 players under investigation.

And the appeals could take weeks — or months.

Baseball players pride themselves on walling off distractions — a necessary skill in this mental game. But the Biogenesis case could test the sport’s collective focus as few diversions have before. The cause of cleaning up the sport is noble. It’s also irritating as hell.

There are “strong indications” that Major League Baseball will announce further suspensions in the Biogenesis case this week, including a ban of Alex Rodriguez through next season, The New York Post‘s Joel Sherman and Ken Davidoff are reporting.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, Rodriguez could face a lifetime ban from baseball if he does not agree to an MLB-brokered deal. The Daily News reported that baseball is “armed with voluminous evidence they believe would warrant lifetime banishment.” A source close to Rodriguez told the paper, however, that he is “sticking to his story” and will not accept a deal.

For the league, making the announcement this week allows MLB to levy 50-game suspensions — the penalty for failing a performance-enhancing drug test for the first time — on the more than 15 players who are expected to face sanctions.

The league suspended Ryan Braun earlier than the rest of the offenders because he accepted the penalty without appeal. MLB wants to provide the other offenders the opportunity to serve their suspensions without appeal, as well, so they can start next season with a clean slate, according to the report.

Rodriguez is seeking a similar settlement to Braun, but will likely face much harsher penalties.

From The Post report:

"It is expected other players will do the same this week. To that end, Rodriguez’s representatives met with MLB officials in the past few days, The Post has learned. It is believed A-Rod’s camp was trying to gain a better understanding of potential penalties. However, a member of Rodriguez’s team told The Post yesterday it is “unequivocally untrue” that Rodriguez is seeking a settlement."

…

"Rodriguez does not fit into this category. It has become evident MLB is going to demand Rodriguez’s punishment far exceed Braun’s. That is because MLB believes the combination of being a user and obstructing the case demands a much stiffer penalty — especially because Rodriguez has admitted to previous drug use from 2001-03 and because MLB believes Rodriguez subsequently lied to its investigators in previous interviews about his usage."

Commissioner Bud Selig could ask for a lifetime ban of Rodriguez, but an arbitrator may rule that the penalty be reduced, and Rodriguez is prepared to fight any suspension, The Post reports.

The expectation was Rodriguez had hired a cavalry of lawyers, private investigators, crisis managers and spokesmen to fight any sanction. Publicly, his camp has been feisty — and more — in trying to mount a case that both MLB and the Yankees have tried to injure his reputation and keep him from playing.

On the South Side of the Globe, the Essendon Bombers of the Australian Football League have been disqualified as a team from that league's postseason, due to team-sanctioned abuse of a banned anti-obesity drug by players, who were apparently told by team staff that the PEDs were legal. As a result of this scandal, the Bombers' Head Coach has been suspended, and the CEO, Chairman, and "Special Performance Coach" of the team have stepped down from their posts in disgrace.